Currently, in critical care settings, patients that experience acute respiratory distress are prescribed noninvasive ventilation (“NIV”). This form of ventilation keeps the patient conscious, and a hard plastic mask is placed over their nose and mouth supplying positive pressure to the patient's respiratory system to aid in their breathing. Due to the fragility of the patient's state, the patient cannot remove the mask without risk of severe and immediate complications. This may lead to a patient who is completely unable to communicate with the outside world because of the sound barrier created by the hard plastic mask.
The communication barrier may create a host of problems. In many cases, a medical professional's best means of coming to a quick and accurate diagnosis is to be able to understand the patient's medical history, which is typically communicated to them by the patient or a family member of the patient. However, without a family member present and the patient wearing a mask, a doctor or nurse may not be able to get this vital information. The patient also may experience feelings of claustrophobia and isolation, causing them to try and remove the mask. This may lead to less effective treatment because medical professionals may have to correct the patient's treatment multiple times.
Currently, patients may communicate medical history and complaints to the medical staff by using communication boards. These boards have two to three dozen pictures, which are sometimes unlabeled, and an alphabet so that the patient typically can point to the most applicable picture or spell out a customized message. With NIV becoming more common, there is a long-felt but unresolved need for a system or method that can facilitate a more effective and natural means of patient communication with the outside world through a hard plastic mask.